It might have been the fifth day over here - but I only covered four sport during the day.
Quite a day - and as some of you know I am in this for the long haul. Where as this was only the 7th day covering the London 2012 games (including torch relay, etc) today was really my 21st consecutive day on assignments away from home, when you calculate the two week work in Bulgaria. And let's just say that if I was feeling the fatigue at the end of the stay in Sofia - yesterday it was hitting me again. Even when I woke up - it felt like my eyelids were tied to a ton of bricks and all I wanted to do was fall asleep again.
But, no such luck for yours truly ! 6.30 catching the transport to Olympic Park (car - tube - DLR - Media Bus) - finishing the last bits from Sunday at the MPC, before heading out to get few quick snaps of Women's basketball game Croatia vs China, then meeting up with the journalist from the paper I work for and head out for Women's Handball and Denmark vs Korea, which actually was a great game and personally speaking I think Handball is the sport that the British public have really taken into liking and wanting to learn more. After handball, walk across the park to Riverbank and shoot the Pakistan vs Spain game in Field Hockey - got some nice pictures from high up in the stands of the vista showing the whole Olympic Park and London at the background.. a place I will surely visit again! Then another dash across the park, with the crowds - and to cover Water Polo match between Italy and Australia.
Water Polo arena was a peculiar place - in a way that inside the venue itself it is quite nice and warm (for someone covering their fourth game it was warm enough to feel slightly tired), but once you got to the Photo Workroom.. man was it freezing there, we all were wearing jumpers and even a woolly-hat might have been appropriate. Then again - at least it kept me awake during the time I was editing four games worth of images.
Covering so many sports in a time frame of 7-8 hours presents its own challenges, you need to adjust your way of thinking and photographing constantly. Where as something works with basketball, the same can not be said about Water Polo. Also as today's assignment was more about giving a general overview of each sport and not so much reporting about the match itself. It was asking for different types of images to be taken - and images that I normally would not send to the clients (i.e wider images showing players position on Penalty Corner in Hockey.. 7 meter throw in Handball..) were something that I was actually seeking from today.
By the end of Water Polo match - cheery sounding fellow photographer was asking if I was attending any evening events.. and my answer was that I was going to be at the NINE HOUR SLEEP near Epping! First night that I've slept more than 5-6 hours, and boy was I looking forward to it.
Before that I had to negotiate the loops of Media Shuttle buses at the Olympic Park - and for some reason the Shuttle buses have a 5 mile/hour speed limit and sometimes you see the Games Makers on the pavement walking faster than our bus is moving.. let's just say it makes you just that tad-bit frustrated - then again I do hope that the speedy Games Makers will get a speeding fine or something! Although luck was on my side - as I caught the 'South Loop' shuttle that took me to Stratford exit instead of the MPC.. so straight to DLR - then Central Line to Epping.. and box meal from KFC before having a couple of minutes of SkyPe time with my wife.. and then.. LIGHTS OUT!
AH!! On my royalty/etc watch - it seems like the Prime Ministers media person had made a mistake in planning David Cameron's schedule.. he was obviously supposed to be at the Italy vs Australia water polo.. but oh no.. he had been booked into the Handball match.. sometimes you just can't trust them to get things right!
Once in a while I do mention things that are hard/tough during these long days of tournaments - and at the Olympics for media it is getting a chance to get anything to eat! Luckily we do have other options than McD's (although the Americans seem to love the fact that you can have a Big M and then go to work.. I'd just get an upset stomach from on of those).. but the way my work is most days.. finding the time is quite tough. Yesterday my dining pattern was 6am : Breakfast - 4pm : Flake (that's a chocolate bar!) - 8pm : KFC meal. Not really a balanced diet that you'd like in a long tournament. And then you listen to the journalist - "yeah, didn't watch the whole game as I popped over to have a bite to eat" (during handball) - "Oh yes, was the goal at the end, as I went to grab a bite to eat" (during field hockey).. and all the while.. well.. all I had to chew on was.. nothing.
It's supposed to be raining on Tuesday - which means I have an outdoor sport to cover :-) More about that later.. I hope Mr Mitchell, Woods, Hobbs and Ahmed enjoy the cozy settings at the Basketball venue.. from pictures I've seen.. those guys have a whole lot a spare time ;-)